A couple of weeks ago, I went back and read some of the offseason posts. The ones about the Melky/Sanchez trade were quite enjoyable.

Yeah. I had no idea what kind of prima donna that dude was back then.

And I studied Melky's numbers before the trade. Last year was no fluke and neither is this year. He's always been a good hitter. He simply figured it out. Evidenced by the only real change coming from his SLG numbers.

Also worth noting is Melky was traded in-part to make room for Lorenzo Cain...an unproven "prospect" who is less than two years younger than Melky. Not overly fair to Cain since he's been injured all year...but he's been injured all year. The biggest wrinkle is that Cain had way more trade value at the time and could have been included in a package for, say, Gio Gonzalez (along with Mike Montgomery and a few other guys the Royals have that are close-ish and had nice value (but kind of sketch) at the time).

But...at the time and not knowing anything about Sanchez's mentality (it's complete dog ****), it was a solid-ish move in an attempt to improve the starting pitching situation in KC, which is the only thing keeping them from the division crown even now (but especially so then).

I was at the Phillies AAA teams games yesterday and got to see 10 innings of baseball and the Iron Pigs beat the Scranton Yankees on a walk off wild pitch (after a walk off walk last night), but Howard was the DH last night and I figured I'd offer some input because I hadn't seen much news about him in here and figured someone is probably interested in knowing.

IDK if he is rushing himself back, or the organization is doing it, but its obvious he isn't ready. Luckily my friends and I had seats directly in line with left-handed batters back, so you could get a great view of their mechanics, but its obvious he isn't ready just watching him in the batters box. Instead of driving off his back leg and generating power with it, he really is only transferring his weight forward during his swing. His swing right now is all upper body. IDK if its because he isn't willing to truly test the Achilles yet or if its because he can't, but everyone there (even the drunk lady behind me who seemed like she knew very little about baseball) can tell he isn't anywhere close to 100% and doesn't have confidence in his recovery. I don't remember his exact line last night, but I think it was 1 for 4 with a double to left field (should've been a homer if he were able to drive off his back leg), a groundout to second, and either one or two strikeouts. His double came in his last at bat and was right down the third base line. I doubt even before his injury he would've been able to stretch it for a triple, but in his groundout and in this double he has a very noticeable limp, which is more properly labelled an uneven trot. Basically, he may be playing, but I don't expect him to be the player we was before the injury for a while. Until he is confident in his tendon, I would personally keep him in the minors, because most major league pitchers will eat him alive solely since they really don't have to worry about themselves becoming a highlight home run.

My only hope is that this work without the power he is used to will make him work harder to become a more balanced hitter, but I won't be holding my breath for that, lol. One positive thing I will say though is that he looks much slimmer than I'm used to seeing him, which means he is at least keeping in shape. He isn't BSing reporters when he says he is in better shape overall than he's ever been.

Maintaining .352 may be a bit lofty, but he can certainly maintain slightly better than his end of year numbers from 2011. The main difference between 2011/2012 and the rest of his career is he is getting contact more consistently. He made adjustments and learned how to cover the holes in his swing.

Maintaining .352 may be a bit lofty, but he can certainly maintain slightly better than his end of year numbers from 2011. The main difference between 2011/2012 and the rest of his career is he is getting contact more consistently. He made adjustments and learned how to cover the holes in his swing.

I'm guessing whenever Slade can field again (DHing since hes been back) he'll move over to left giving us a Heathcott - Williams - Austin OF in Tampa. That will be fun to watch for the rest of the year.

It'd be nice if DBJ and Culver were playing better, but they'll likely finish the year in Low-A.

Remarkably similar. He's making better contact outside the strike zone but worse than in the strike zone.

And his babip last year was about 50 points higher than the years before... Here making much better contact and is using all parts of the field. The reason he can maintain is because he's simply a much better hitter than he was in the past. It seems like you're suggesting luck, which out isn't.

Haha I just have you all his contact percentages. He's not making more contact at all. You're suggesting something that's just not true. I think he'll end up having a similar year to 2011 but he's not going to continue to hit at this rate.

Only two previous years were comparable, and that there were two previous years that were similar is why last year and this year aren't flukes. He's just been making better contact on top of more contact and isn't trying to pull everything like he used to (evidenced by his babip). Again, you come off as though you are suggesting it's pure luck.